270 Remarks on the Geology of South Africa. 



of Organic Remains the most ancient, in that direction. The 

 high towering Wintt-rhoek Mountain about 6,100 feet above the 

 levtl of the Sea, divides the range into two parallel extended 

 arms ; between which, runs the West Olefants River in a narrow 

 vale, and near their termination lies the Village of Clan William. 

 In th;s valley I observed inclosed in large pieces of rock, the 

 same as found a little to the north-east behind Cogmans Kloof, 

 as also tin same species of shells. The declivities and bases of 

 Karoo hills, which skirt that great hill studded inland plain, the 

 Karoo, along the base or near the primitive chain before noticed, 

 afford the most numerous and valuable specimens : while some 

 of the rocky, castellated, and wall shaped tops of the same, 

 contain in the body of the rock some few slight appearances of 

 a testaceous substance, denoting hat something great in 

 Organic Remains may be found at their bases. 



^ on ester. Clan William, Swellendam, George, and Beaufort 

 divisions of the Colony, are, from personal observation, (the 

 last district excepted) the most interesting parts which lay 

 open the evidences of an ancient ocean; or of a great aqueous 

 catastrophe which has left in letters of stone the traces of a 

 former world ; so that, the persevering observer, with an 

 ordinary share of intelligence, may read and understand. 



\* 11 h regard to the first discovery of Organic liemains within, 

 or beyond the Colony of the Cape, I have examined all the 

 books, both Dutch and English, which [ could meet with ; and 

 have conversed with most persons able to aff>-rd information. 

 Many of the Dutch inhabitants twenty or thirty years ago, 

 observed the remarkable impressions on the stones and in the 

 quairies from which they had erected their dwellings, but they 

 could not account for the cause of their origin. 1 believe the 

 honor of the discovery of them, and their nature, is due to 

 a Merchant,* formerly of Cape Town, who was at the Keizie 

 Baths, behind Cogmans Kloof, in the year 1804 or 1805. 

 This Gentleman found the shelly strata there to be true Organic 

 Remains; which I afterwards confirmed by several visits to 

 thatspotin 1817, 1818, and 1828 



The shells found along our eastern coasts some miles inland in I 

 calcareous rock, from Caledon sub district to the termination of 

 the Swellendam and George primitive mountain range, near! 

 Plettenberg's Bay, and those rather more inland in Uiteohage 

 and Albany districts, are different in their genera, calcareous! 

 appearance, situation and rock in which they are found, to* 

 those remains as above described, — I consider them, to have; 

 become fossils at a subsequent period. The same remark may 

 be applicable to the west coast of the Colony, to those shells 

 said to be found near the sea or even many miles inland on the 



V< . Enislie, who kindly obliged me with his notes on the strata, shells, &c. 



